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Nigerian oil union Pengassan said it will only shut down oil output as

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+%3Cp%3EEuropean+Central+Bank+President+Mario+Draghi+said+there+is+no+%93external+savior%94+for+countries+that+don%92t+implement+structural+reforms+to+restore+confidence+to+debt+markets.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3E%93There+is+no+external+savior+for+a+country+that+doesn%92t+want+to+save+itself%2C%94+Draghi+said+in+a+speech+in+Berlin+today.+%93I+will+never+tire+of+saying+the+first+response+should+come+from+the+countries.%94+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+ECB+is+buying+the+bonds+of+debt-strapped+nations+such+as+Italy+and+Spain+after+they+agreed+to+implement+austerity+measures+to+improve+their+finances.+Draghi+nevertheless+reiterated+today+that+the+ECB%92s+bond+program+is+%93neither+eternal+nor+infinite.%94+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EHe+said+an+%93unavoidable%94+short-term+economic+contraction+in+the+euro+area+may+be+mitigated+by+a+return+of+confidence+if+governments+implement+budget+consolidation+plans.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3E%93In+the+medium+term%2C+sustainable+growth+can+be+achieved+only+by+undertaking+deep+structural+reforms+that+have+been+procrastinated+for+too+long%2C%94+he+said.+%3C%2Fp%3E+Bank+Measures++%3Cp%3EWhile+the+ECB+has+pushed+back+against+calls+for+it+to+step+up+its+bond+purchases%2C+Draghi+said+measures+taken+last+week+to+give+banks+greater+access+to+liquidity+will+soon+be+felt.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EOn+Dec.+8%2C+the+ECB+established+refinancing+operations+with+a+maturity+of+three+years%2C+allowed+banks+to+use+their+own+loans+as+collateral%2C+and+cut+the+required+reserves+ratio+to+1+percent+from+2+percent.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3E%93The+current+package+should+be+felt+tangibly+in+the+financial+sector+and+the+real+economy+over+the+coming+months%2C%94+Draghi+said.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EHe+said+banks+face+%93headwinds%94+as+they+try+to+meet+new+Europe-wide+capital+ratios.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3E%93The+plan+to+strengthen+their+capital+bases+is+an+attempt+to+reinforce+their+standing+in+financial+markets%2C+but+this+is+not+an+easy+process%2C%94+he+said.+%93Raising+capital+levels+is+expensive+in+a+depressed+market+and+faces+resistance+from+shareholders.+Selling+assets+is+less+preferable+and+curtailing+credit+to+the+real+economy+is+even+worse.%94+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EBanks+should+consider+restraining+dividends+and+ad+hoc+compensation+to+strengthen+buffers%2C+Draghi+said.+%3C%2Fp%3E++%3Cp%3E%3Ca+href%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2F2011-12-15%2Fdraghi-says-there-s-no-external-savior-for-euro-countries-that-fail-to-act.html%27+rel%3D%27nofollow%27%3ESource%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E+

Fairview Heights-based Impact Strategies Inc., a construction-management company, has started Phase I of a $4 million renovation project at the Granite City office of Chestnut Health Systems.

The project will double the size of the office at 50 Northgate Industrial Drive to 70,000 square feet. Renovations are being made to two current buildings to connect them, while enabling the owner to maintain daily operations and regular hours of business. The architect is Gray Design payday loans lenders.

Upon completion in the spring, the new facility will accommodate Chestnut Health Systems’ expanded service lines, including pharmacy, crisis residential, counseling, case management and chemical dependency services.

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Qantas Airways was expected to resume flying Monday after an Australian court intervened in a labor dispute that led the airline to ground its entire fleet over the weekend.

By the time the labor-relations court acted, several hundred flights had been canceled and tens of thousands of passengers stranded around the world.

Some airline industry experts say Qantas’ surprise grounding of its entire fleet Saturday could cause many travelers to book future trips on other airlines.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said he had no choice but to order the lockout of union workers and end months of rolling strikes that led to canceled flights, $70 million in losses and a collapse in future bookings.

Joyce told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he expected some flights to resume by mid-afternoon Monday. It was unclear how long it would take for the airline to resume a full schedule. The airline had estimated that it would lose $20 million a day during the lockout.

The Australian labor-relations court issued its ruling ending the standoff early Monday morning _ midday Sunday in the United States _ after holding an emergency hearing that included testimony from company, labor union and government officials.

The president of the labor-arbitration panel, Geoffrey Giudice, said the group acted to protect Australia’s tourism and aviation industry.

The airline said 447 flights had been canceled in the first 24 hours of the lockout. Qantas did not immediately update that figure.

Qantas is the largest of Australia’s four national domestic airlines, carrying about 70,000 passengers a day on a fleet of 108 planes that operate in 22 countries. In 2010, it was the 16th largest airline in the world by passenger miles flown, according to the trade publication Air Transport World.

Its major international destinations include Singapore, Hong Kong and London. In the United States, Qantas flies to Los Angeles, Dallas, New York and Honolulu.

Travelers reported being ordered to leave planes that were already on the tarmac when the lockout began Saturday. More than 60 planes in mid-flight flew to their destinations, then were parked.

Qantas said it paid to rebook passengers on other airlines, including compensating those who had to pay higher last-minute fares to get home.

For several weeks, workers have carried out rolling strikes and refused to work overtime to demand higher pay and protest the airline’s plans to cut about 1,000 jobs. Qantas, which has about 32,500 employees, wants to reduce costs by creating new Asia-based airlines for international flying. International flights were a roughly $200 million drain on the company last year.

The company reported in August that annual profit had doubled. But it said the business climate was too turbulent _ partly because of labor turmoil _ to forecast future earnings.

Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst in San Francisco, predicts the shutdown will do long-term damage to the Qantas name by hurting its reputation for reliability.

“A lot of travelers won’t take a chance and will book away to Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand and other airlines,” Harteveldt said. “Brand loyalty in the airline business is very low, and there is so much competition.”

Before the court ruling, Virgin Australia said it was scheduling extra flights and offering 20 percent fare discounts to help stranded Qantas passengers through Thursday.

If Qantas loses customers, that could also hurt partners in its alliance of global airlines, including American Airlines. A rival alliance that includes Air New Zealand and is led by United Continental Holdings Inc. could benefit. So could a third group of airlines that includes several major Asian carriers and is led by Delta Air Lines Inc. and Air France-KLM.

Other industry veterans said the lockout was a daring move that will pay off for Qantas, which wants to expand the low-cost, low-fare model that it uses at its Jetstar Airways subsidiary.

Jetstar has extensive routes to Southeast Asia and Japan, and lower costs than Qantas. But Qantas unions fear that expansion of low-cost airlines will result in Australian jobs being sent overseas. CEO Joyce hopes to bend the unions closer to the company’s vision for growth by tapping into Asian markets.

“It was a very shrewd move by their CEO to force the issue and stop the potential deterioration of the brand,” said Mo Garfinkle, an airline consultant who has worked for Qantas rival Virgin Australia. “In the end, it will benefit Qantas financially.”

Garfinkle said the short duration of the fleet grounding will help Qantas get back up to full speed quickly, cutting its losses.

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The city that put Love Canal and Superfund in the environmental lexicon may get back into the business of dealing with toxic waste _ this time willingly. It is considering whether to truck in and treat wastewater left over from natural gas drilling.

The economically struggling city in western New York could use the revenue, and the Niagara Falls Water Board says its specialized wastewater treatment plant can handle more business since the decline of the chemical industry it was designed for.

With New York considering allowing natural gas production in its part of the lucrative Marcellus Shale, the water board is examining whether it would make economic sense to become a destination for the byproduct wastewater of the drilling process, called hydraulic fracturing, said Richard Roll, the public benefit corporation’s director of technical and regulatory services.

“Since we do have a unique kind of wastewater treatment plant that’s very much under-loaded, we’re looking into the possibility that, with the addition of other treatment processes, maybe our plant would be much more amenable to accepting this waste than your typical municipal biological plant,” he said.

Many have criticized the idea, including former Love Canal resident Lois Gibbs, who became a national voice for environmental health. She said she wondered if city officials would ever learn.

“They’re moving away from the chemical industry because the chemical industry is moving away from them, and it’s time to start a new economy,” Gibbs said by phone Thursday from Falls Church, Va., where she’s executive director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. “And the new economy is certainly not taking chemical waste.”

Fracking forces millions of gallons of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, deep into shale formations beneath Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Texas and other states. Its use has increased dramatically in recent years, raising concerns about the potential impact on water quality. Critics say fracking could poison water supplies, while the natural gas industry says it’s been used safely for decades.

Liquid that comes out of the drilling wells is highly salty and contaminated with substances such as barium, strontium and radium and other things that can be damaging to the environment. Millions of barrels of wastewater must be treated, and municipal sewage treatment plants can’t remove contaminants as efficiently as some of the treatment facilities that specialize in oil and gas industry waste.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will draft standards for wastewater that drillers would have to meet before sending it to treatment plants.

In Niagara Falls, environmental groups and others say importing chemical-laden waste should be the last thing Niagara Falls should consider, given its experience with the Love Canal environmental disaster. An entire neighborhood was emptied in the 1970s after toxins dumped by Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corp. into an abandoned canal in the 1940s and ’50s were found to have seeped into basements and backyards, creating panic over birth defects and cancer no teletrack payday loans. President Jimmy Carter declared a federal emergency in 1978, and in 1980 the Superfund cleanup act was born.

Once treated, the fracking wastewater, to be brought in by truck or rail, would either be discharged into the Niagara River upstream of Niagara Falls or be reused in drilling, Roll said. The Niagara River flows between lakes Erie and Ontario, forming a border between western New York and Ontario, Canada.

A coalition of local opponents submitted 25 questions to the water board, and about 15 members attended a board meeting Thursday night hoping for answers about the potential environmental impacts to the river and adjoining lakes, costs, safety, possible impacts on human health and the handling of radiation brought to the surface from deep shale wells.

“We should be learning from past mistakes instead of risking our water so we can accept New York state’s hydrofracking waste,” said Rita Yelda, an organizer for Food & Water Watch, an environmental advocacy group.

“Niagara Falls is known for its tourism, its beautiful scenery,” Yelda said. “A large part of their revenue is tourism, people coming in to see Niagara Falls. How will that be impacted by the increased truck traffic and what they’re releasing into Niagara Falls?”

The Council on Canadians, a social justice advocacy group, also is among those pushing Niagara Falls to scrap the idea.

“Last year the (United Nations) passed two resolutions recognizing water as a human right, and this proposal to treat fracking fluids threatens people’s human right to safe and clean drinking water,” the Ottawa-based group said in a Sept. 22 letter to the water board.

The board took no action Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Roll stressed the board is only just beginning to research feasibility testing, regulatory requirements and potential revenue “to make sure it’s not just workable but it makes sense for everyone to participate.”

The Niagara Falls treatment plant was designed to handle waste from the city’s once booming industrial base of electrochemical, organic chemical, ceramics and electrometallurgical plants, Roll said. It already processes imported landfill leachate from three customers that bring the waste by truck, he said.

“We’ve been developing that trade for the past 15 years or so, and that has had the same effect,” he said. “It’s unused capacity that is sitting there waiting to be taken advantage of, and we have a duty to try to make our utility as economically viable as possible for everyone.”

New York environmental regulators last month formally issued proposed regulations for hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale and scheduled four public hearings. The state hasn’t allowed fracking since it began drafting new permitting rules three years ago.

In neighboring Pennsylvania, nearly 4,000 wells have been drilled in the past few years and tens of thousands more are planned.

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Australia avoided recession with its economy growing 1.2 percent in the three months through June after shrinking in the previous quarter due to natural disasters at home and abroad, according to government figures Wednesday.

Storms and record flooding early this year destroyed crops worth billions of dollars on Australia’s east coast and disrupted coal and iron ore exports. Earthquakes also devastated two key Australian trading partners, Japan and New Zealand.

The economy expanded 1.4 percent in the year through June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. It contracted 0.9 percent in the January-March quarter. A recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

Burgeoning demand from China and India for Australian minerals and energy carried Australia through the global financial crisis with only two quarters of contraction, the first in December 2008.

Treasurer Wayne Swan said the rebound from natural disasters added half a percentage point to growth in the three months through June, the strongest quarterly growth in four years.

“Despite being hit by the most costly natural disasters in our history, the Australian economy has continued to forge ahead of most others in the developed world,” Swan told reporters.

“Today’s figures send a really powerful message: that even the biggest natural disasters in our history and the worst global downturn in 50 years can’t knock us off course,” he said.

But the recovery in mining had not been as fast as the government had expected in May when Swan drafted the national budget for the current fiscal year that ends on June 30, 2012.

Some coal mines in Queensland state had yet to return to full production since they were inundated by flood water and rail connections to ports destroyed.

“The impact of the natural disasters has been bigger on our economy than we expected,” Swan said.

The government forecast in its May budget that flooding and cyclones in Australia combined with earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand had cut economic growth in the fiscal year to June 30, 2011 by 0.75 percentage point to a yearly figure of 2.25 percent. Swan said that year figure was down to 1.8 percent.

Flooding in eastern Australia since November killed 35 people, damaged or destroyed more than 35,000 houses and inundated crops as well as coal mines.

An earthquake devastated New Zealand’s second largest city, Christchurch, and killed at least 169 people on Feb. 22. Japan’s northeast coast was laid waste by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, killing more than 25,000 people.

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Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is calling on the so-called mega-rich to pay more in taxes.

Buffett says in a New York Times opinion piece that he would immediately raise rates on households with taxable income of more than $1 million, and he would add an additional increase for those making $10 million or more.

He says he and his mega-rich friends have been coddled long enough by Congress, and says it is time for the government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

He says he has yet to see anyone shy away from investments due to potential capital gains taxes, even when capital gains rates were much higher in the mid-1970s.

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Stocks tumbled across the Middle East on Sunday as most regional markets opened for their first day of business following a historic downgrade of the United States’ credit rating.

Mideast markets mostly operate Sunday to Thursday. That makes them the first to react to credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s decision late Friday to cut the U.S. level one notch to AA+ from its top AAA rating. The only exception is OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia, which plunged 5.5 percent when it opened Saturday.

The Dubai Financial Market’s benchmark index suffered some of the steepest declines, plunging more than 5 percent in early trading before trimming its losses. The index was down 3.8 percent to 1,482 points by early afternoon.

While the S&P downgrade weighed on the market, it was also dragged lower by a lower than expected quarterly profit from Arabtec Holding, the Emirati construction giant that helped build the world’s tallest tower in Dubai. Arabtec shares fell 4.9 percent to trade at 1.4 dirhams (38 cents).

Egypt’s benchmark EGX30 index fell over 4 percent by midday local time, bringing its year-to-date losses to more than 32 percent.

S&P’s cut could shake investor confidence in the world’s largest economy and send tremors coursing through global markets. Traders worldwide are eagerly watching to see how far larger and more liquid markets in Asia and Europe react to the downgrade when they begin opening Monday.

Financial ministers from the Group of Seven leading economies were preparing to hold a teleconference likely before Asian exchanges open to discuss efforts to stabilize world markets guaranteed cash advance.

Other Gulf markets also opened sharply lower. The Abu Dhabi index slumped 2.5 percent, while Qatar’s market shed 3 percent.

Farouk Miah, an analyst at NCB Capital in the Saudi capital Riyadh, said Mideast traders are concerned that debt problems in the U.S. and Europe could drag on oil-dependent economies in the region.

“A lot of people were expecting a downgrade. I think the bigger concern is the oil price falling” because of slumping demand in the West, he said.

Saudi Arabia’s stock market was the only one in the region to open Saturday. The Tadawul’s main index edged slightly higher Sunday, creeping up a tenth of a point following the previous day’s rout.

Miah attributed the uptick to day traders looking to make a quick profit, not a sign of renewed confidence. He expects Mideast markets to slump further if other global markets tumble on the U.S. debt downgrade.

In Israel, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange delayed the start of the week’s first session after pre-market trade showed the benchmark index dropping more than 6 percent because of concerns over the U.S. debt rating cut.

Exchange spokeswoman Idit Yaaron said the start was pushed back by 45 minutes “so market players will have time to react logically and not under pressure.” It tumbled 5.7 percent amid heavy trading to trade at 1089 points by late morning.

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The merger of Express Scripts with Medco would create a behemoth with a finger in 30 percent of the nation’s prescriptions

European Union leaders appointed Italy’s Mario Draghi as the next president of the European Central Bank on Friday _ a move that gives investors much-needed certainty over who will lead the institution in its pivotal role in the fight against the crippling debt crisis.

The timing of Draghi’s appointment had come under doubt as fellow Italian executive board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi had until Friday refused to leave his post.

With Bini Smaghi staying on the executive board, France would not have a representative on the six-person board once current ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet departs on Oct. 31. The French had previously implied they would only support Draghi if a Frenchman or woman takes Bini Smaghi’s spot.

However, a European official said Friday that Bini Smaghi had now agreed to step down by the end of the year. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because the moved had not officially been announced yet.

The European Parliament and the ECB board had already given their approve to Draghi’s appointment.

Delaying his appointment until their next summit in September would have underlined divisions among EU leaders, who have already struggled to find a common line on debt-stricken Greece and the best way of containing the financial crisis that has also pushed Ireland and Portugal into needing massive bailouts.

The ECB has played a central role during the debt crisis that has afflicted the 17-country eurozone over the past 18 months or so payday loans guaranteed no fax. For example, Trichet overrode criticism from some of the more hawkish officials at the bank when he backed a multibillion euro (dollar) bond-buying program intended to ease the pressure on the more indebted countries.

More recently, the ECB has found itself in the difficult position of raising interest rates to keep a lid on above-target inflation levels even though the weaker eurozone economies remain weak.

The decision on Draghi was expected a day after EU leaders gave their clearest sign yet that Greece will get a second bailout in the coming weeks, on top of last year’s euro110 billion ($156 billion).

“We agreed that there will be a new program for Greece,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The stronger language on aid for Greece was also made possible after debt inspectors from the EU and the International Monetary Fund reached a final deal Thursday with the government in Athens on euro28 billion worth of new austerity measures.

The measures have to be passed by the Greek Parliament next week for the bailout funds to be released. If lawmakers fail to back the package, then Greece will likely be staring at a default on its debts.

Even if it gets a second bailout, many economists think that Greece will have to restructure its debts in some shape or form in the coming years, especially if the economy shrinks further.

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